Railway frog and crossing.



E. R. KENT. RAILWAY FROG AND CROSSING.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 23, 190B.

Patented Apr. 27, 1909.

W'Omesses:

UNITED STATES PATENT. ornicn;

EDWIN R. KENT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS I .RAILWAY FROG AND "'oRossmG.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 27, 1909.

. Application filed September as, 1908. Serial- No. 454,307.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN R. KENT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chi cago, in the county of Cook and State of illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful improvea'ients in Railway Frogs andCrossings, of which the following is a specification. I

' leretofore it has been the usual practice to construct railwayv frogsand crossings by building them up'out of a number of pieces of rails andblocks, or. filler pieces, and uniting the whole by means of bolts. Inpractice such built-up frogs and crossings are found to be defective onaccount ofthe jar and pounding of the trains, which cause-the variousparts to become worn or loosened, withconsequent danger of derailment.

The present invention is designed to overcome these objections anddefects and to provide a new type of frogor crossing which will besubstantial andrigid in construction,

which will have no parts to become loosened;

and which will furthermore serve to, guide the wheels through the frogor crossing, that is, in passing from one set of rails to the other. Isecure these advantages by means of the novel device shown in theaccompanying drawings, in which .i igure l is a top plan view of a frogembod \-'ing this invention; Fig. 2 is .a side. elevation of the same;Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 33 of F ig, 1; and Fig. is asectional view on the l 1ne;44:-of Fig. 1, showing the end of the frogpointin'elevatron. a \7 As indicated in these drawings, my improved frogis made entirely of one piece, having. pro ecting ends 5--5 andpreferably made in the form of standard'rail sections and adapted to beunited directly to the crossiir rails of the track. The endpieces 5 areshown as converging and the heads of the rail sections are continuedfrom about the point of junction in a flat plate 7, forming a frog pointThe heads of. the projecting rail sections (Pb, which are, of course,shown as converging from the opposite direction, are continued bymeans'of plates or' tread members 99,, the inner edges of which convergeto the -ipoint 10,

forming the throat of the frog, and then.

diverge parallel to the sides of the frog point fora convenientdistance. and then turn outwardly as indicated at 11 so that .the endswill foi'in.giiidcs for the wheels distance beyond the point of thefrog, atihe opposite end. As indicated in Fig. 1, the inner edges ofthese ridges are arranged to engage With-the wheel rims on the sidesonposite to the flanges and thereby guide the Wheels so that the flangeswill not strike the extreme end of the frog point 8. In order toaccomplish this guiding movement, without shock or jar to the wheels, Iprefer to arrange'the ridges lo'so that the inner edges approach nearestto the center-line of the rail of the track on which the wheel to beengaged would enter the frog, at a point slightly in advance of the frogpoint and gradually recede away therefrom. As shown in Fig. 1, this isdone by having the inner faces of the ridges 15 made substantially inthe form of curves which lie tangent to lines parallel to a centerlinethrough the frog, such points of tangency being about 'oppositetheend of the frog point. The

ends 'of theseprojections or ridges 1.5 are beveled as indicated at'lti,to provide for the passage of a wheel with-a blind rim or a wheel of anunusually wide trcad which might otherwise strike the abrupt ends ofsuch ridges. The. connected plates and webs forming the'upper surface ofthefrog proper are) provided with depending flanges or supports 17having flanged bottoms In for engagement with the railway ties.

-"lhese flanges 17 and the surface portions are further braccd 'andconnected together by means of -a -ser1es of webs 19 exteudmg across andlengthwise of the frog proper. the whole being formed in one piece orcasting in order to make a rigid and compact structure. 'I prefer toform' these frogs of metal having high tensile strength and suitablewearing qualities, to stand the heavy demand placed upon such devices.

Having thus describedmy invention, which I do not wish to limit -to theexactform or arrangement herein shown and de scuibcd, what I claim anddesire. to' secure by Letters Patent is: 1. A railway frog-or crossingcomprising "plates adapted to .form treads or wearing vsurfaces for thewheels,. webs connecting said plates and leaving grooves between thesame for the wheel flanges, the late I forming the frog point being madesoli for a distance from the end of the point and being provided with adownwardly projecting supporting flange and end projectionsextendingfrom saidplates and webs,

said projections being in the form of rail sections; all of said partsbeing formed of one piece, said ridges approaching nearest to the linescorresponding with the adjacent -sides of the intersecting grooves, atpoints adjacent to the end of the frog point, and

receding away therefrom in each direction,

the arrangement being such that the wheel will preferably be graduallycrowded over by-one of said'ridges in, passing toward the --f-rog pointso that the wheel flange will not engage with the end of the frog point.

2. Arailway frog or crossing comprising a wheel-supporting member-havinggrooves '-formed therein. for the wheel flanges, end

projections adapted to be secured to rails,

and upwardly projecting ridges for engagement with the wheel rims toguide the wheels through the frog or crossing.

, 3; An integrally formed railway frog: having a frog point comprising aflanged plate terminating in sections for engagement with rails, wingplates arranged to coact with said frog point and connected'therewith bya-..web arranged to leave grooves for the wheel flanges, said wingplates being pro- 'vided with terminals for connection with rails, andupwardly projecting ridges on {said wing plates for engagement with 'the"rims of the wheels to supporting members being provided with terminalsfor connection with rails, curved guide ridges at the outer edges ofsaid.

wheel-supporting members forguiding the wheels thi'ougli'the frog,dependingflanges having widened bottoms for engagement with railwaytiesand cross webs for bracing said parts, substantially as described.EDWIN Pt, KENT.

Witnesses:

A. W. FENS'IEMAKER, BURT Cur. BEAN.

